This invention relates to protective covers for limbs and their articulations, and more particularly to knee and shin guards used in the practice of various types of sporting activities such as hockey, baseball, motor cross, and war games.
Many sport practitioners must shield parts of their bodies against harmful impacts. In particular, baseball catchers, hockey goalies, motor cross enthusiasts commonly wear protective padding over their shins, knees, and upper legs. Many other activities, both recreational and work related entail placing certain joints of the body into contact with hard surfaces which over time tend to create discomfort and even injury. Carpet and tile layers, roofers, and some agricultural workers to name a few, benefit from knee protection. The protection of an elbow or knee calls for devices that, by necessity, must attach above and below the articulation. Because elbows and knees are complex articulation that have oddly shaped and shifting profiles, it becomes extremely difficult to provide an articulated covering of the articulation that closely espouses the contour of the articulation without applying undue and uncomfortable strain upon the device attachments. In a knee or elbow, the axis of articulation is not only distant from the outer concave surface, but, due to the complexity of the articulation, that axis is subject to a slight translation as well as rotation. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,969 Pratson et al. Prior attempts to deal with these complex conditions in a hingeed knee protector consisted in placing the axis of rotation between the upper and lower parts of the device away from the skin surface and almost in line with the knee approximate rotational axis. Moreover, the outer surf ace expansion of the knee during flexion was accommodated by providing a broad overlap of one part over the other. However, the rigidity of the device did not provide for any lateral flexion or for the slight translation of the actual articulation axis of the knee. The device was subject to shifting, popping out, and applying uncomfortable pulling force upon the securing straps.
The present invention results from an attempt to accommodate the complex movement of a knee or elbow articulation in the construction of an effective padding and shielding structure for upper or lower limbs.
The principal and secondary objects of this invention are to provide an ergonomic shielding and padding structure for human limbs and their articulations which conforms intimately with the geometrically complex flexion and extension of knees, elbows, shoulders and other joints, to provide stable and comfortable attachment of the shielding and padding structure to a section of the limbs, and provide multi-axial movement of one part of the structure in relation to the other.
These and other valuable objects are achieved by means of a protective structure comprises two parts, each shaped and dimensioned to intimately cradle a portion of two members joined by a complex articulation. The two parts are joined by an articulated plate which is hingedly and loosely connected at one end to one of the parts, and is slidingly connected to the other part by a resiliently and axially expandable attachment.